New Telegraph

About 157, 000 Nigerians die of TB yearly – NGF

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has expressed concern over the rising cases of deaths in the country as a result of tuberculosis disease.
NGF Chairman, Governor Kayode Fayemi, in a message to mark this year’s World Tuberculosis Day, said Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest burden of TB, ranking first in Africa and sixth globally.
Fayemi stated that though the disease is preventable and curable, it has remained the deadliest infectious disease globally, noting that “about 18 Nigerians die of TB everyday which translates to 432 people monthly and 157,000 yearly.”
The governor noted that over the last decade, government and partners have implemented various interventions to ensure that people with TB are found and treated but regretted that the advent of Covid-19 pandemic and its control measures in 2020 further impacted on the health system including TB services, setting back progress made.
He, however, said: “Despite this setback, the government in partnership with other stakeholders are working to address these challenges by strengthening the capacity of state TB Programme to be more effective in its role, as well as support revitalisation and upgrading of health facilities to provide appropriate TB services especially diagnosis.”

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